Our new feline family

 Who said I couldn't climb out of the box

 Whatcha looking at?

  What did you say?

I regularly feed stray cats. One of them was a pregnant female and she decided she was going to have kittens at our place. I tried to introduce her to our several sheds and the garage but she ended up having them right beside the house in the flower garden on May 20th.
There were seven in all. My wife found them and said that the mother had tossed out two of the litter. I checked and found that one was still alive and the other stillborn. I put the live one back with the others and it survived to this day.
There are three black with some white and three orange with white. The mother is orange black and white. A couple of weeks back the mother disappeared. We rushed to the vet and bought some kitten milk replacement powder and also a bottle and two syringes. My wife served as mama cat for two feedings.
We put the box with the kittens out on our deck with a partial cover to keep the sun out. I was sitting out in the afternoon enjoying a cup of coffee and took off the top. There was the delinquent mama with the kittens.
The kittens are now in their fifth week. They are exploring and can easily get out of the cardboard box which was their home earlier. I have included some photos. At this stage they are already prancing about.
The mother seems very laid back. Not all momma cats are properly programmed to instinctively do the right thing. In fact some are so stressed out by the birth process that they just take off and leave the litter to die. However at least this momma has stayed long enough that the kittens are now starting to eat solids already. I have appended a number of photos.

A fox can be a chicken

  Our village has a number of stray cats. Some residents resent their presence but others such as myself feel pity and admiration for these survivor felines who often make it through temperatures reaching minus forty C (or F) in the winter. We put out food and water to help them survive.
   Where the cats come from is a mystery. Some of them may have been here for generations since females regularly have kittens. A few are obviously lost or abandoned. Local rumor is that some folks drop unwanted cats off in the town hoping that they will survive. One can tell the abandoned or lost cats by the fact that they want to make friends with you and come in the porch once the door is opened. The feral cats run off at the sight of a human.
   I feed these cats on our back deck having both a feed bowl and a liquid bowl. On occasion at night I will open the door to put out feed and find the wrong sort of cat, one with a white stripe down its back--a skunk. The cats make way for the skunk, but they move only a short distance off not bothering even to retreat from the deck. Oh sorry! This story is supposed  to be about the fox.
   The other day I looked out our front window and saw a fox on the path shoveled through the snow from the garage. It advanced a little towards the deck. I thought that it would go and explore the food dish. I saw it there once before. But no, he stopped. He then started yelping as if he was frustrated.
  I went in the other room and peaked out on an angle where I could see the deck. There were three stray cats. They were all holding their ground. I have seen a stray dog chase the cats away several times. I have even heard stories of foxes killing cats. But for whatever reason this fox was not about to challenge 12 paws with claws plus 3 sets of sharp teeth. A fox can be chicken. I went out on the deck and shooed him away and off he went just like a chicken.